How to Draw a Stone Wall

The ability to draw a stone wall might be a good addition to any artist's skill list. Learning to draw a stone wall is also an ideal starting place for beginning artists. Stone walls are not difficult to master, but learning to draw them can help build your ability to create depth and textures as well your ability to utilize lines to bring out images. Learning to draw stone walls can add another layer to your artistic abilities and may even inspire you to use your newfound talent to create a drawing that features stone.

Things You'll Need

Pencil set

Eraser

Sketch pad

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Draw the simple outline of a wall. Try turning a sketch pad in landscape position and draw a line all the way across, starting about six inches above the bottom edge of your paper. The area inside that line and the edge of your paper will be the area of your stone wall.

Fill in the area of your wall with rounded squares. A rounded square is basically the shape of a square, but with edges that are more round than square. Think of them as rough squares. Don't worry about making them perfect because they will be stones. Stone walls are not typically uniform. Fill the area of your stone wall with these rough squares, placing as many in as you can.

Lightly color each of your stones with pencils. Use an angled side-to-side motion as you apply the pencil coloring. Don't worry about fully coloring each of the squares. Give them a light shading. The paper and the light lead color of the pencil will work together to create stone coloring and texture.

Rub a corner edge of your eraser over each of the squares to smudge and blend the coloring. You can also use your finger. Again, don't go for a uniform look. The more random your coloring and smudging is, the more natural and weathered your stone wall will look.

Draw dark lines around each of the squares. This drawing technique is primarily to add depth to the wall and to bring your stones out. If you want to make those dark lines look like cement between the stones, you can use your eraser to lighten them a bit.

Apply intermittent patches of dark on some of your stones. This is to add more texture to the stones and help create more depth and to intensify the weathered look. Find a good balance of dark and light to give your stone wall a realistic appearance. To get a feel for the finished wall and the overall success of the drawing, stand back from it and let your eyes take it in as a whole.